This is kind of the blind leading the blind, since I'm a 1st year student still. But what I meant by 'stars aligning' is that from what I read, the residencies start sometime in the summer. So IF you are accepted into the residency of your choice coming out of school, and IF you have time to do ODS before the residency starts, then yes, the timeline I described is technically possible.
Back to the thread: I'd be really interested in hearing more info/experiences/thoughts on a 1 year AEGD vs Comp program if anyone's willing. General thoughts, specific exposure to procedures during and after each program, a 'typical day' in each, how doing one vs other impacts deployment, or location, or administrative responsibilities down the road. Any light that could be shed would be appreciated.
Specific interests of mine:
-Is there a substantial difference in the types of procedures done between these 3 groups (no AEGD, 1 yr AEGD, 2 yr Comp)? I am looking at my time in the military as an opportunity to: #1 serve and do my part, and #2 further my skill set as a clinician if/when I get out.
From what I've seen, not really, at least on the big shore clinic side. The comp dentist gets more training and has more supplemental privileges, but the bulk of the work is the same especially in a clinic that has multiple specialists - they'd rather have the periodontist doing the perio surgery and the endodontist doing the retreat endos than the comp dentist. On a carrier or at remote/smaller clinics the comp dentist will of course be doing more of the specialized stuff.
-What is the typical number of deployments a non-aegd person will do, vs aegd dentist, vs comp dentist? I'm not looking to dodge deployment (wouldn't be asking about comp if I was!), but I will hopefully have a few young kiddos early in my dental corps career. I think a deployment or two will be a great 'life experience', but at the same time will be hard on a young family. I don't want to spend 15-20 years deploying every few years with all the workups that go along with it, and end up missing everything at home. For those that stay in, around what year in an average career do you start taking on more administrative positions such as clinic director, etc?
You may have picked the wrong line of work. In a 15-20 year career I would not expect to spend 13-18 of those years at home. If you want to do a career, you need to be willing to take those operational tours, because they don't sign you up and pay you to just sit in an office all day somewhere in San Diego or Virginia - they have plenty of civilian contract dentists to do that job. Furthermore, if you don't take the tough jobs, that's not going to look great when you're trying to go down that admin/command track that you're asking about. Expect to be operational or in a deployable billet after your first year or after a residency, and then to rotate between shore duty and operational tours from that point on as long as you're a JO. Military life is hard on families - that's no secret and you will be better off facing that head on rather than trying to avoid it.
-If I were to decide I want to get out before 20 years, how would my time be best spent to prepare me as a civilian clinician (ie-worth it to spend the extra year for AEGD; worth it to spend the extra 2 years doing Comp?)
I can't answer that, but a lot of it is what you put into it.
Thanks in advance.
